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namespace URI of xmlns prefix

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: namespace URI of xmlns prefix
• From: John Heinstein <jheinstein@e...>
• Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 16:09:36 -0300
• User-agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (Windows/20041206)

Hi,

Could someone clarify part of the XML Namespaces spec for me?

The spec states that namespace declarations are a special category of 
attribute: "A namespace is *declared* using a family of reserved 
attributes. Such an attribute's name must either be |xmlns| or have 
|xmlns:| as a prefix".

So if a namespace declaration like 
xmlns:foo="http://www.foo.com/some.namespace" is made, and that 
declaration is considered a type of attribute, then:

- the namespace prefix of the attribute is "xmlns"
- the local name of the attribute is "foo"
- the value of the attribute is "http://www.foo.com/some.namespace"

But what is the namespace URI of the attribute? What namespace does the 
prefix "xmlns" belong to?

And then you have default namespace declarations, such as 
xmlns="http://www.foo.com/some.namespace".

- the namespace prefix of the attribute is an empty string: ''
- the local name of the attribute is "xmlns"
- the value of the attribute is "http://www.foo.com/some.namespace"

And I presume in this case, the namespace URI would be an empty string?

I'm asking because I'm unsure how a DOM method like getAttributeNS is 
supposed to deal with namespace declarations. Would xmlns attributes 
simply be ignored in this case?

John Heinstein

-- 
John Heinstein
VP Software Development
Engage Interactive
921 College Hill Rd.
Fredericton, NB
E3B 6Z7

phone: (506) 460-1627
fax: (506) 460-1626

http://www.engageinteractive.com

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